A Recorded Life - Miraculous Ladybug

2.6 - Like Before

Words: 1088
Chapter Summary: Adrien and Marinette are approached by a random group and have to resort to what they know. What did these people want and how will they handle it?
Author's Note: I lowkey loved this chapter. I can't believe we're already so close to the end of the sequel! 

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As they rounded the corner, Marinette fell behind as she heard something hit the ground, assuming it was something from her purse.

She glanced down and realized it was not hers, and decided to keep on walking. But before she could get too far, someone grabbed her arm. "Ah!" She yelled.

Adrien's head shot around fast enough to give him whiplash. "Mari!" He started to walk towards her, but someone grabbed him too, preventing him from getting any closer.

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Adrien looked at who was holding Marinette and noticed their face was covered, and no one had said anything to indicate what they wanted or what they were going to do. Not wanting to take any chances or give them a moment to speak, he opened his mouth to say some words he hasn't said in defense for years.

"Plagg, claws out!" He called, and a bright green light filled the alleyway.

Adrien had become Chat Noir only when they were truly needed. They're only called in when something big happens, and they're asked to, never forced. Adrien hasn't turned into Chat Noir with this feeling of Chat Noir or nothing since the fights with Hawkmoth, and he wasn't going to risk losing anyone else.

Chat Noir appeared in front of Marinette and the strange men, and as he pushed himself off of the person holding him, he noticed Marinette was being guided down the street. "Cataclysm!" He yelled and ran after her. "Let her go, I am not afraid to use this," He threatened. The man only stared at him, and Chat Noir squatted down to touch the ground. It shook the ground enough that the man lost grip on Marinette, and she rushed over next to her partner.

Before the man could catch his balance, a red light filled the streets, and now Ladybug was standing next to Chat Noir. "Lucky charm!" She yelled, and a polka dot paper bag landed in her hands. She looked at it, confused, but ready to figure the puzzle out.

Suddenly, the masked people started cheering when they looked at Chat Noir and Ladybug standing next to each other, ready to fight. "Yes!" One yelled and pumped his fist.

The two heroes looked at each other, a bit confused, but not letting their guard down. "What is this?" Chat Noir growled at the men.

"They are still around! Now we have proof!" A new voice joined the group and walked out from behind a car. This one was holding a large camera, pointed at Chat Noir and Ladybug. 

Chat Noir grabbed the man closest to him by the shirt, forcing him to look Chat Noir in the eyes. "What is going on?" He demanded.

The man put his hands up in defense. "We just wanted to see how it worked and confirm the heroes are still here," He said, then pulled up his mask. They were younger than Marinette and Adrien, but old enough to have some common sense, so why did they think this was a good idea?

Ladybug rolled her eyes. "You are in so much trouble," She said and walked up to the others who were standing by the guy with a camera. "I will be taking that," She said and snatched the camera, and while the kid protested, she didn't care. She walked back to Chat Noir and patted his shoulder. "He's not worth it; let's just get home." 

Chat Noir shoved the man away from him and grumbled a few words that they couldn't hear. Ladybug threw the bag up into the air, and the road was cleaned up. Swiftly, Chat Noir put his arm around Ladybug and swung away, still holding the camera.

It actually hadn't been too long since Chat Noir, and Ladybug last made an appearance. They were out only six months ago to help the police station with a hostage issue, and though they have a lot of fans and paparazzi to obsess over them, they never thought that some fans would go this far to check it out for themselves.

They detransformed when they reached their apartment, and Plagg immediately went into a rant about how stupid those people were while Tikki tried to calm him down. Marinette tossed the camera on the table, hoping it would be easy to get rid of the footage. She quickly sent a text to Alya to see when she was available to look at it with her, but didn't want to think about it anymore.

"I can't stand people sometimes," Adrien complained as he opened the fridge. They were going to have a nice night, relaxing and spending time together, but now he was just frustrated. "Who thinks it's a good idea to try and force our powers out? Don't they know how dangerous my cataclysm can be?" 

"Some people just don't think," Marinette offered as a response, not happy with that reasoning either.

"What if I didn't use my cataclysm on the ground? What if I used it on one of them before we found out they weren't going to hurt us?" Adrien said, not finding anything good in the fridge and slamming the door shut.

Marinette shrugged, not sure how to calm him down since she was also angry. "I don't know," She said. "But at least that didn't happen, and no one got hurt. I texted Alya to see if she can help me get the footage off the camera."

Adrien nodded, taking a deep breath. He heard his phone buzz and pulled it out to read the countless notifications that quickly came across: hundreds of Twitter notifications tagging him and work associates texting him. He opened up Twitter, closed his eyes, and threw his phone across the room.

"Is everything okay?" Marinette rushed to his side.

He turned back to the fridge and pulled out a bottle of wine. "Guess we don't need to get the footage off that camera," He said. "Seems like they had it upload somewhere else simultaneously and posted it online." 

Marinette took a deep breath while taking in this news. She only nodded, and opened up the cabinet to grab their two biggest wine glasses. "So I guess we don't need Alya's help, then," She sighed. "Why does this remind me so much of when we were first outed?"

"Same stupidness that kid had, too," Adrien replied. "Well, at least we've dealt with this before. We can do it again," Adrien said. "But this time, with some help," He smirked and shook the wine bottle.